Foreign Hackers Hit Two State Electoral Databases

Foreign hackers broke into two state election databases in recent weeks, according to a restricted FBI warning obtained by Yahoo News. The report comes amid unprecedented concerns that Russian state-sponsored hackers may be seeking to disrupt the November presidential elections. The FBI is now warning election officials across the country to take new steps to enhance the security of their computer systems. An FBI alert, labeled as restricted for “NEED TO KNOW recipients,” disclosed the bureau was investigating intrusions for two state election websites this summer, including one that resulted in the “exfiltration” of voter-registration data. The bulletin does not identify the states in question, but sources told Yahoo News they were Arizona and Illinois. One of the IP addresses listed in the FBI alert has allegedly surfaced before in Russian criminal underground hacker forums. Six states rely entirely on paperless touchscreen voting with no paper ballot backups.